Landing Olympics Is A-No. 1 Goal for Him

Michael R. Bloomberg, 60, is New York’s 108th mayor. He took office Jan. 1, succeeding Rudolph W. Giuliani.

Bloomberg has spent much of his first year grappling with a major budget crisis -- a municipal deficit now estimated at more than $6 billion for next year, caused by the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks as well as a downturn in the national economy and setbacks suffered by Wall Street firms.

Bloomberg has nonetheless played a recurring and highly visible role in promoting New York’s bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics -- a plan that calls, in part, for construction of a stadium on Manhattan’s West Side and an Olympic village in Queens, across the East River from the United Nations. Last month, the U.S. Olympic Committee picked New York to be the U.S. candidate for 2012; the International Olympic Committee will choose the 2012 site in 2005.

The mayor sat for an interview in the second-floor “bullpen” at City Hall -- a converted public-hearing chamber where he and his top aides work in egalitarian, office park-like cubicles.

Question: Why New York City for the Olympics?

Answer: New York City is the world’s second home. It represents the diversity of the world more than any other venue. It has for a few hundred years been the city where people who dream and want to do things by themselves come; it’s the land of the tired, the hungry, the poor yearning to be free. It’s the land of opportunity in ways no other city has been in the modern day.

It also provides probably the best venues from a physical point of view of any prospective location. The ability to get from an event to any other event by a water taxi or subway is unique.

Q: Where does winning the Games rank on your list of priorities?

A: My first responsibility is obviously keeping the city safe, fixing our public school system and promoting economic activity. I think that the Olympics help all of those things by enhancing the world’s knowledge of what New York City has to offer and promoting it as a tourist destination.

Q: London, Paris, Moscow and other cities may try for 2012 as well. Your view of the competition?

A: All nice cities but I can’t speak for them. All I can speak for is New York and its 8 million people, who better than anybody else represent to the world and have an attitude that anything is possible and have demonstrated an ability for 350 years, 400 years, to accept, to embrace, to welcome the world’s population.

Q: You and the deputy mayor for economic development, Dan Doctoroff, have said repeatedly that the Games will not burden taxpayers. How can that be? Why should they believe you?

A: I am the mayor and he is the deputy mayor; there is a certain amount of validity because of your office and because of people’s experience with us. If you look at the numbers, given the kind of wealth in this city, corporate and individual, raising money for the Olympics will not be a complex thing. We need the housing that will be the Olympic village....

The big projects -- the extension of the subway system, the No. 7 line; and the expansion of the Javits [Convention] Center -- this city desperately needs to revitalize its tourism business. We will do those things regardless of whether the Olympics come here; we hope to have both under construction before the decision is made in 2005.

Q: How does the city’s budget crunch play into the bid process?

A: Not at all. You’re talking about an economic downturn that may by now be over -- though the effects will be felt in every municipality in every state of the Union for a while. You’re talking about the next couple years versus the long term. You’re talking about an operating budget problem when [construction] would come out of capital budgets. It’s also true we believe most of this will be done with private money.

Remember, Central Park was built when the country was falling apart. The subways were built when the Lower East Side was so teeming with population it was life-threatening. We built the Empire State Building at the very bottom of the Depression. New York City builds things when we’re in trouble because that’s when people get together and understand the need to have a future. Adversity is a catalyst.

Q: Before the USOC vote, some of the city’s biggest names in politics, diplomacy, business, entertainment and the media let it be known they were New York 2012 supporters. But do you sense an overwhelming desire on the part of the general public for a New York Olympics?

A: All the polls say the public is overwhelmingly in favor. You’re talking about something that will be decided in 2005, three years from now, and take place in 2012, 10 years from now. If you can stimulate this kind of support now, imagine what will happen as the fever builds and people realize the excitement and the impact on New York City longtime.

Q: Do you have a favorite Olympic moment?

A: I’d like to see my younger daughter compete in the Olympics. She’s an equestrian, 20 years old. I asked her whether she’d like to come to Athens with me in 2004, to see the equestrian events. She said, “Daddy, why wouldn’t I want to be there in person to participate?” I think she’s a touch too young. It’s a sport where the competitors tend to be in their upper 20s, early 30s. But don’t doubt my daughter. She’s very tough.

Q: Have you been to an Olympics?

A: Never been.

Q: What role will 9/11 play in the bid process?

A: I believe we will get the Olympics because of the character of the people of New York City and what they’ve shown and how they’ve pulled together after 9/11. Nobody expects a sympathy vote. But I do think that this was a city united [before the attacks] in ways the general world didn’t understand; 9/11 just showed it. We’re the most cosmopolitan city in the world and have virtually no racial problems. There’s no other city where people get along as well as they do here. We’re a city that accepts everybody. I don’t know of any city that [offers] upward mobility to those who want to work harder than the other person, no matter their background, gender, race, ethnicity, orientation, whatever.

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T.J. Simers has the day off.